> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.thecellarjournal.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# The NBA Has Become One of Wine's Most Important Cultural Gateways
- URL: https://www.thecellarjournal.com/the-nba-has-become-one-of-wines-most-important-cultural-gateways/
- Published: 2026-10-01T01:36:24.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T01:45:22.000Z
- Description: From LeBron James opening bottles to CJ McCollum planting roots in Oregon, basketball is doing what the wine industry often struggles to do: making curiosity visible and inviting new people in.
- Author: Pedro Fadanelli
- Tags: #en, Perspective

From LeBron James opening bottles to CJ McCollum planting roots in Oregon, basketball is doing what the wine industry often struggles to do: making curiosity visible and inviting new people in.

**Wine enters the frame**

The image has become familiar. An NBA player arrives at an arena carrying a bottle. Another shares a Burgundy, a Barolo or a Napa Cabernet after a game. A conversation that once belonged mostly to collectors, sommeliers and restaurant tables now appears in locker rooms, podcasts, social media posts and courtside seats. Wine has become part of the visual language of the league.

LeBron James is the most influential figure in that shift. His bottles are noticed, identified and discussed because his audience extends far beyond basketball. When he shows interest in a producer or region, millions of people see wine not as a distant ritual but as something attached to a person they already follow. Josh Hart speaks openly about the bottle of 2009 Harlan Estate that first pulled him deeper into wine. Jimmy Butler has described Mark Wahlberg introducing him to fine wine and built a cellar with capacity for 20,000 bottles in his California home. The details differ, but the effect is similar: curiosity becomes public.

This visibility matters because wine has a communication problem. It often asks new consumers to learn its language before allowing them to feel comfortable inside it. The NBA reverses that order. People first see someone they admire enjoying a bottle, asking questions and developing preferences. Knowledge comes later. The point of entry is identification rather than instruction.

**From drinking wine to building something**

The more important development, however, is not that players are drinking prestigious bottles. It is that a growing number have moved from consumption to participation. Their projects range from labels created with established producers to direct investment in vineyards and wineries. The distinction matters. Celebrity can sell the first bottle, but land, farming, winemaking and consistency determine whether the project deserves a second purchase.

CJ McCollum offers one of the clearest examples. He was introduced to wine by his wife, Elise, while they were in college. After being drafted by Portland in 2013, proximity to the Willamette Valley turned interest into study. Oregon Pinot Noir led him toward vineyards, soils and producers. In 2020, the couple launched McCollum Heritage 91 with Adelsheim Vineyard. The name joins the street where he grew up with his birth year, placing family history at the centre of the brand rather than treating his NBA career as the entire story.

The first Pinot Noir sold out in less than an hour. That could have remained a successful celebrity release. Instead, the McCollums purchased a 318 acre property in the Yamhill Carlton AVA in 2021 and began the longer work of developing an estate. The project expanded into Chardonnay, rosé and traditional method sparkling wine, while its partnership with Adelsheim provided technical knowledge and local continuity. The recent attention around the winery's milestones is therefore significant because it shows a transition from endorsement to permanence. McCollum is not only bringing his audience to Oregon wine. He is tying his family's future to the region.

Dwyane Wade followed another route. Wade Cellars began through his relationship with Napa vintner Jayson Pahlmeyer and developed into a range designed to be both credible and approachable. Channing Frye helped create Chosen Family Wines in Oregon with partners including former teammate Kevin Love, building the brand around the social role wine already played within their circle. Carmelo Anthony and Asani Swann created VII(N) The Seventh Estate after years of conversations, travel and public tastings. Tony Parker became an investor in Château La Mascaronne in Provence and Champagne Jeeper alongside Michel Reybier, bringing his profile to established estates while learning the business from inside.

These are not identical ventures, and they should not be evaluated simply because famous names are attached to them. Their importance lies in the movement they represent. Players are no longer only customers at the edge of the industry. They are becoming owners, partners, employers and interpreters of wine for communities the traditional trade has not always reached.

**A larger table**

The NBA's wine culture also carries a question of representation. For decades, the American wine industry presented a narrow image of who produced wine, who collected it and who was expected to understand it. Black athletes speaking confidently about vineyards, vintages and producers disrupt that image without needing to make the disruption theatrical. They simply occupy the space.

Some have gone further. Josh Hart worked with Wine Access on the Diversity in Wine Scholarship Program, connecting candidates with WSET education and professional opportunities. McCollum and Frye participated in Oregon's One Barrel Challenge, an initiative designed to expand access and support people of colour entering the wine industry. Wade has repeatedly positioned wine as a space that should feel social and inclusive rather than intimidating. These efforts turn visibility into infrastructure, even if on a modest scale.

That is the part of the story the wine business should study most carefully. A famous person holding a bottle produces attention. A scholarship, a vineyard visit, a job, an educational programme or a new Black owned wine company can convert attention into participation. The industry has spent years discussing how to attract younger and more diverse consumers. NBA players are demonstrating that the invitation becomes more persuasive when people can see themselves at the table.

**Influence at a difficult moment for wine**

The timing is important. Wine consumption is under pressure in several mature markets, and the American industry is particularly concerned about its relationship with younger adults. At the same time, Wine Market Council research published in 2025 found that Millennials had become the largest group of wine drinkers in the United States, representing 31 percent of the category, ahead of Baby Boomers at 26 percent. IWSR data has also shown that 44 percent of Millennial regular wine drinkers report high involvement with the category, compared with 30 percent across regular wine drinkers as a whole.

This does not mean that an athlete can reverse structural decline. It does show why the cultural bridge matters. The consumers wine most needs to retain are highly responsive to people, experiences and communities. They are less likely to accept authority simply because it comes from an established institution. Players who document their own learning process can make wine feel relevant without reducing it to a trend.

The commercial response is already visible. Jackson Family Wines became the NBA's first official wine partner in 2024 through Kendall Jackson and La Crema. According to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle, arena sales later increased fivefold. The partnership is not proof that every basketball fan will become a wine drinker. It is evidence that the connection has moved beyond a niche inside locker rooms and into the league's formal business strategy.

**The bottle cannot rely on the name**

Celebrity wine still deserves scepticism. Some projects begin with a marketing plan and search for liquid afterwards. A recognisable name can obscure generic sourcing, inflated prices or wines designed only to occupy a lifestyle category. Athletes should not receive lower standards because their involvement attracts new consumers. If anything, their influence creates a greater responsibility to be transparent about who grows the grapes, who makes the wine and what connection the bottle has to a place.

The strongest NBA projects understand this. McCollum worked with an established Oregon producer before purchasing land. Parker joined an experienced owner whose portfolio includes Cos d'Estournel. Wade developed his wines with a Napa winemaking partner. Chosen Family built relationships with growers and winemakers in Oregon. Their credibility comes not from pretending to be lifelong vignerons, but from recognising what they do not know and investing time in the people who do.

This is also where the distinction between influence and culture becomes clear. Influence can make a bottle sell out. Culture is created when someone wants to know why Oregon Pinot Noir tastes different from Napa Cabernet, why a vintage matters, how a vineyard is farmed or why a producer chose one method over another. The best ambassadors do not make themselves the final subject. They direct attention toward wine.

**What the NBA gives wine**

Basketball has not made wine simpler. It has made the desire to understand it more visible. That may be more valuable. LeBron James does not need to teach a formal class for someone to search for the bottle beside him. Josh Hart can describe the wine that started his interest and give another collector permission to remember their own first important bottle. Jimmy Butler can make a cellar part of a broader life built around food, travel, music and hospitality. CJ McCollum can lead a fan from a basketball game to the soils of Yamhill Carlton.

Famous people have always influenced what the public wears, drives and drinks. What feels different here is the depth of engagement. Wine within the NBA has developed through friendships, shared dinners, travel and repeated curiosity. Some players have turned that curiosity into businesses, while others have used their visibility to open educational and professional doors.

Wine should not expect the NBA to solve its problems. It should pay attention to what the league is doing well. It allows enthusiasm to be social, personal and visible before it becomes technical. It shows that learning can be aspirational without becoming exclusionary. Most importantly, it brings new people to the beginning of the conversation.

The lasting value of this relationship will not be measured only by the number of player owned labels or expensive bottles posted online. It will be measured by how many people see those images, become curious and eventually develop a relationship with wine of their own. Fame opens the door. The vineyard, the producer and the wine must give them a reason to stay.

**Sources**

Akron Beacon Journal, Canton native NBA star CJ McCollum celebrates family winery milestones in Oregon, September 30, 2026.

McCollum Heritage 91, official history, partnership information, technical sheets and press releases.

Food & Wine, CJ McCollum's Passion for Wine Comes to Life, October 2, 2020; NBA Star CJ McCollum Ventures Into Sparkling Wine, September 19, 2022; How Three NBA Stars' Brands Are Changing the Wine Industry for the Better, June 2023.

San Francisco Chronicle, Inside the NBA's love affair with Wine Country, February 2025.

Food & Wine, NBA Players Are Making Wine More Inclusive, March 2021.

The Guardian, Vintage performance: what's behind NBA stars' wine obsession?, May 2, 2024.

Wine Market Council, Millennials Now Largest US Wine Drinking Cohort, December 2025.

IWSR, Key trends for the US wine market in 2024, March 25, 2024.

Château La Mascaronne and Michel Reybier, announcement of partnership with Tony Parker, March 31, 2022.